AI & Systems Research Engineer Intern - Austin

Webhosting; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 22,000 - 27,000; Full time

Job summary

Cloudflare’s Research Team seeks a Research Engineer Intern (Fall 2026) for in-office work in Austin, TX. This 12-week internship focuses on security, privacy, and systems at scale, with opportunities to contribute to AI and network research.

In-office 3-4 days per week, you will collaborate with a world-class research team, using Rust/C/Go, contributing to open-source projects, and engaging in rigorous evaluation and experiments.

Qualifications

• Evidence of tackling hard or open-ended problems.
• Proven track record of peer-reviewed research, open-source software contributions, or standards development, that is commensurate with level of training — students at all levels are welcome to apply.
• Experience clearly communicating research ideas through papers, pre-prints, standards documents, blogs, or similar media
• Ability to work in a systems-level programming language (e.g. Rust, C, Go)
• Passion for debugging and ensuring system reliability
• Familiarity with continuous integration workflows and source control systems (e.g., Gitlab, Github)
• Willing and eager to share knowledge, with the skills to do so
• Knowledge or experience with at least one of the following:
• Computer networking protocols (TCP/IP, DNS, BGP, QUIC, etc.) and related algorithms
• Machine learning analysis, ideally in systems or network optimization
• Authentication protocols, applied cryptography, PKI and SSL/TLS
• Operating or distributed systems analysis or development
• Measurement for network and computer systems
• Proficiency in a scripting language, such as Python
• Bonus Points:
• Proven track record of independently driving projects in a fast-paced environment
• Experience working in groups, or with multiple stakeholders
• Able to fluently work across multiple programming languages

Responsibilities

• What you’ll do: Cloudflare’s Research Team solves difficult problems in security, privacy, and systems at scale. This involves engineering, data analysis, open source software development, protocol design, implementation of primitives, with lots of measurement alongside.
• Successful candidates will be matched to suitable projects in on-going research directions. We are particularly interested in applications in the following areas: AI, Distributed Systems, Privacy
• Internship Availability and Expectations: Ability to commit to a 12 week fall internship; In office 3-4 days a week in Austin, TX
• What Makes Cloudflare Special? We’re not just a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company. We’re a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company with a soul. Fundamental to our mission to help build a better Internet is protecting the free and open Internet.

Skills

Rust

C

Go

Systems programming

Debugging

CI workflows

Git

Tools

Gitlab

Github

Job description

Cloudflare’s Research Team seeks a Research Engineer Intern (Fall 2026) for in-office work in Austin, TX. This 12-week internship focuses on security, privacy, and systems at scale, with opportunities to contribute to AI and network research.

In-office 3-4 days per week, you will collaborate with a world-class research team, using Rust/C/Go, contributing to open-source projects, and engaging in rigorous evaluation and experiments.